10 Underrated Movies By Great Directors

James Cameron holds the distinction of having directed the two highest-grossing films of all time, Avatar and Titanic. They're the only films that he's made in the last two decades and despite their spectacle cannot hold a candle to some of his earlier efforts, chief amongst them The Terminator, Aliens and Terminator II: Judgment Day. The latter two of which are rare amongst Hollywood sequels in that they exceed or at least equal their predecessor in quality.

Wedged between these chronologically is The Abyss, perhaps Cameron's most forgotten film with the exception of his 'debut', a sequel to the Jaws rip-off Piranha on which he had no control over editing and tried to have his name removed from the credits.

Mixing the penchant for science fiction that Cameron had already honed with then-revolutionary underwater filming, The Abyss was a spectacle in its original form before it was bettered with the release of a special edition in 1993, made after special effects technology caught up with Cameron's vision. This expanded on the film's Cold War tensions, anti-war rhetoric and the fractious relationship between leads Bud (Ed Harris) and Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio).

In either version, the performance of Michael Biehn as the villainous Coffey is the biggest standout. Playing against type having starred as the heroic male lead in The Terminator and Aliens, he delivers the 'humans, not aliens, are the biggest threat to humanity' role with more than sufficient menace as he becomes more and more mentally unhinged.